The Department of Biomedical Engineering will host the inaugural BioMedOpTex Symposium at Texas A&M University May 23-25.

The three-day symposium -- sponsored by the Department of Biomedical Engineering, the Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) and SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics -- will be held at the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center at the George Bush Presidential Library. The program will highlight new trends and progress made in biomedical optical technologies and applications in diagnostics and therapeutics to improve public health worldwide. A student development workshop at the Emerging Technologies Building will feature a session with author Peter Fiske and an entrepreneurial panel discussion with industry leaders and university researchers. Tours of the facilities and biomedical optics labs round out the three-day event and are open to all symposium participants.

Rebecca Richards-Kortum, the Stanley C. Moore Professor of Bioengineering, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University and founder of Beyond Traditional Borders, and Lihong Wang, the Gene K. Beare Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University and author of Biomedical Optics: Principles and Imaging, will give invited talks. Robert Nordstrom from the National Cancer Institute, Sohi Rastegar from the National Science Foundation, and Ramesh Raghavachari from the Food and Drug Administration will lead a panel discussion on the future direction of biomedical optics.

“We hope this inaugural symposium will become an annual event,” said Dr. Kristen Maitland (pictured), assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and chair of the BioMedOpTex Symposium. “Optical techniques play a critical role in biomedical studies ranging from basic biological science to in vivo imaging and therapies. We have a high concentration of researchers in biomedical optics at Texas A&M and at other institutions across Texas. This symposium will showcase cutting edge research in the region, provide an opportunity for students to interact with experts in the field and foster collaborations.”

Presentations and a panel discussion will feature academic researchers and industry leaders from across the region to showcase research and promote knowledge exchange between institutions and industry. A student poster reception will provide a venue for students to present their research and interact with the experts. Student poster award recipients in each student category (undergraduate and graduate) will be presented at the completion of the conference.